The New Theatre is thrilled to announce that the winner of The Silver Gull Play Award for 2025 is Steven Vidler for his play The Vanya Variations. The Silver Gull Play Award is a competition open to NSW and ACT-based writers over the age of 18 for an unpublished and unproduced original play of 60 minutes or more duration that speaks to New Theatre’s ethos of ‘Plays with a Purpose’.
This year saw a record number of entries, with an exceptionally high calibre of scripts submitted. The judges commended the overall quality and originality of the writing. Five plays which the judges considered outstanding were shortlisted: The Crypt Dialogues by Peter Fleming; Lavender Sky by Jack Kearney; First, Do No Harm by Grace Malouf; Brief Candle by Simon Thomson; and the winner, The Vanya Variations by Steven Vidler. In addition, two plays were Highly Commended: Hiding Lights in Dark Places by Meg McDonald, and The Bureau of Imagined Genealogy by Zoe Hogan.
In front of an enthusiastic audience, excerpts from the five shortlisted plays were presented by actors Matt Abotomey, Kyra Belford-Thomas, Kate Bookallil, Alex Bryant-Smith, Sonya Kerr under the direction of Joseph Tanti. Steven Vidler received a prize of $5000 and the other shortlisted writers received $500 each, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Joy Minter, who has supported The Silver Gull Play Award since its inception in 2015.
ABOUT THE PLAY
The Vanya Variations is a bold and playful theatrical exploration of the themes, characters and ideas of Chekhov’s iconic play of thwarted ambition, Uncle Vanya. It tumbles through a series of four socially and historically diverse iterations, with a gender and role switching cast, and with Anton Chekhov hovering and commenting from the sidelines. It explores what happens when you hitch your life to someone else’s moonshot… and they miss…
The tragi-comic theme at the core of Chekhov’s Vanya is that each of us invests heavily in deriving meaning for our life from an ambitious dream – a futile rebellion against our finite existence. When this Quixotic endeavour fails, our continued pursuit of it serves only to distract us from finding meaning through connecting with others. The Vanya Variations is a vibrant and distinctive new play that revels in its theatricality, explicitly drawing historical and cultural parallels that illuminate our present in a provocative, memorable experience that is relevant, entertaining and accessible.
WHAT THE JUDGES SAID
“Intense, rich, amazing power, humour and, in the final iteration, a lightning strike of satire illuminating and blasting our contemporary world. This is dazzling work in breadth and depth. It deserves a world stage.”
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Steven Vidler is an award-winning actor, writer and director. His debut feature film as director, Blackrock, premiered at Sundance and was nominated for 5 AFI Awards including Best Film. His mini-series A Difficult Woman, co-created with Nicholas Hammond for the ABC, won the Silver World Medal for best mini-series at the New York Festivals. His feature film Standing Up for Sunny premiered at Sydney Film Festival and won the 2020 AACTA Award for Best Indie Film. Steven also holds a research PhD from Macquarie University exploring the cognitive science of audience engagement with character. He has taught Screenwriting at AFTRS and served as a Project Officer and Assessor for Screen NSW and Screen Australia. His play Love Muscle was performed by the NIDA Company. The Vanya Variation is his second full-length play and the result of a decades-long love affair with the works of Anton Chekhov.